Author: William B Ecker USN (ret.)
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472802942
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312
Book Description
Most books on the Cuban Missile Crisis tell the story using the memoirs of those who advised President Kennedy as he struggled to avoid World War III. This book is the only known personal account of the lead photographic reconnaissance squadron's scouting dangerous low-level operations, flying the supersonic RF-8A Crusader, during the classified Operation Blue Moon. Captain Ecker was the commanding officer of US Navy Light Photographic Squadron 62 (VFP-62, otherwise known as “Fightin' Photo”) during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a team created for reconnaissance and aerial photography, and consulted on the movie Thirteen Days, which included dramatic scenes of his first mission over Cuba on October 23, 1962. Blue Moon over Cuba is an authoritative and complete account of the low-level reconnaissance that might be said to have helped JFK avert nuclear Armageddon.
Blue Moon over Cuba
Author: William B Ecker USN (ret.)
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472802942
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312
Book Description
Most books on the Cuban Missile Crisis tell the story using the memoirs of those who advised President Kennedy as he struggled to avoid World War III. This book is the only known personal account of the lead photographic reconnaissance squadron's scouting dangerous low-level operations, flying the supersonic RF-8A Crusader, during the classified Operation Blue Moon. Captain Ecker was the commanding officer of US Navy Light Photographic Squadron 62 (VFP-62, otherwise known as “Fightin' Photo”) during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a team created for reconnaissance and aerial photography, and consulted on the movie Thirteen Days, which included dramatic scenes of his first mission over Cuba on October 23, 1962. Blue Moon over Cuba is an authoritative and complete account of the low-level reconnaissance that might be said to have helped JFK avert nuclear Armageddon.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472802942
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312
Book Description
Most books on the Cuban Missile Crisis tell the story using the memoirs of those who advised President Kennedy as he struggled to avoid World War III. This book is the only known personal account of the lead photographic reconnaissance squadron's scouting dangerous low-level operations, flying the supersonic RF-8A Crusader, during the classified Operation Blue Moon. Captain Ecker was the commanding officer of US Navy Light Photographic Squadron 62 (VFP-62, otherwise known as “Fightin' Photo”) during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a team created for reconnaissance and aerial photography, and consulted on the movie Thirteen Days, which included dramatic scenes of his first mission over Cuba on October 23, 1962. Blue Moon over Cuba is an authoritative and complete account of the low-level reconnaissance that might be said to have helped JFK avert nuclear Armageddon.
Blue Moon Over Cuba
Above and Beyond
Author: Casey Sherman
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 161039805X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
From the authors of the bestselling The Finest Hours comes the riveting, deeply human story of President John F. Kennedy and two U-2 pilots, Rudy Anderson and Chuck Maultsby, who risked their lives to save America during the Cuban Missile Crisis During the ominous two weeks of the Cold War's terrifying peak, two things saved humanity: the strategic wisdom of John F. Kennedy and the U-2 aerial spy program. On October 27, 1962, Kennedy, strained from back pain, sleeplessness, and days of impossible tension, was briefed about a missing spy plane. Its pilot, Chuck Maultsby, was on a surveillance mission over the North Pole, but had become disoriented and steered his plane into Soviet airspace. If detected, its presence there could be considered an act of war. As the president and his advisers wrestled with this information, more bad news came: another U-2 had gone missing, this one belonging to Rudy Anderson. His mission: to photograph missile sites over Cuba. For the president, any wrong move could turn the Cold War nuclear. Above and Beyond is the intimate, gripping account of the lives of these three war heroes, brought together on a day that changed history. Selected as a "Top 10 Nonfiction Books to Read" (2018) by the MA Book Awards
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 161039805X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
From the authors of the bestselling The Finest Hours comes the riveting, deeply human story of President John F. Kennedy and two U-2 pilots, Rudy Anderson and Chuck Maultsby, who risked their lives to save America during the Cuban Missile Crisis During the ominous two weeks of the Cold War's terrifying peak, two things saved humanity: the strategic wisdom of John F. Kennedy and the U-2 aerial spy program. On October 27, 1962, Kennedy, strained from back pain, sleeplessness, and days of impossible tension, was briefed about a missing spy plane. Its pilot, Chuck Maultsby, was on a surveillance mission over the North Pole, but had become disoriented and steered his plane into Soviet airspace. If detected, its presence there could be considered an act of war. As the president and his advisers wrestled with this information, more bad news came: another U-2 had gone missing, this one belonging to Rudy Anderson. His mission: to photograph missile sites over Cuba. For the president, any wrong move could turn the Cold War nuclear. Above and Beyond is the intimate, gripping account of the lives of these three war heroes, brought together on a day that changed history. Selected as a "Top 10 Nonfiction Books to Read" (2018) by the MA Book Awards
The Fires of October: The Planned US Invasion of Cuba During the Missile Crisis of 1962
Author: Blaine Pardoe
Publisher: Fonthill Media
ISBN: 1781553785
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Book Description
It was the closest we ever came to unleashing the Third World War.... The image of that world was so horrible to contemplate that both sides stepped away from that precipice and opted for peace. Fires of October is the exhilarating military history of the Cuban Missile Crisis exploring in detail the strategic plans implemented by American Armed Forces as they headed towards a catastrophic nuclear collision with Cuba and the USSR. Using recently declassified material, Blaine Pardoe systematically recounts the origins of the crisis, from the Berlin Crisis of 1961 and Cuba s military metamorphosis, to the internal disorganization of the US military, which exacerbated tensions between the USA, Cuba, and the USSR. Pardoe reveals that the invasion plans were based on old intelligence, outdated maps, and misconceptions about the size, strength, and composition of the Soviet forces in Cuba; for the first time, and with harrowing results, he scrutinizes the potential fallout had the invasion gone ahead. Gripping and unnerving, Fires of October shows us just how close the world came to nuclear war.
Publisher: Fonthill Media
ISBN: 1781553785
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Book Description
It was the closest we ever came to unleashing the Third World War.... The image of that world was so horrible to contemplate that both sides stepped away from that precipice and opted for peace. Fires of October is the exhilarating military history of the Cuban Missile Crisis exploring in detail the strategic plans implemented by American Armed Forces as they headed towards a catastrophic nuclear collision with Cuba and the USSR. Using recently declassified material, Blaine Pardoe systematically recounts the origins of the crisis, from the Berlin Crisis of 1961 and Cuba s military metamorphosis, to the internal disorganization of the US military, which exacerbated tensions between the USA, Cuba, and the USSR. Pardoe reveals that the invasion plans were based on old intelligence, outdated maps, and misconceptions about the size, strength, and composition of the Soviet forces in Cuba; for the first time, and with harrowing results, he scrutinizes the potential fallout had the invasion gone ahead. Gripping and unnerving, Fires of October shows us just how close the world came to nuclear war.
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Author: Regis D. Heitchue
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
The Cuban Missile Crisis: When Intelligence Made a Difference By: Regis D. Heitchue The Cuban Missile Crisis—the most dangerous event of the Cold War— has been chronicled in countless books and several movies that speak primarily to the political and diplomatic aspects, with only marginal reference to activities of U.S. intelligence before and during the crisis. Nothing in the historical record portrays the scope of those efforts which were critical to President Kennedy as he sought to resolve the crisis in a peaceful manner and on terms favorable to the U.S.. Recognizing the absence of the intelligence chapter in the historical record of the crisis, the author undertook to document that story in The Cuban Missile Crisis: When Intelligence Made a Difference. The author’s account is a unique story of what American intelligence knew, when it knew it, and how it knew what the Soviets were doing in Cuba prior to and during the crisis—and what we now know, 60 years later, quite accurately, what the Soviets were actually doing in Cuba. In that way this book is a valuable addition to the history of the crisis. There are intriguing aspects of the Cuban Missile Crisis that scholars still debate: Why did Khrushchev take the enormous gamble that he did? Did the mysterious backchannel between the Washington KGB chief and an ABC newsman help to resolve the standoff between Moscow and Washington? The author sheds light on these and other mysteries of the Cuban Missile Crisis. There are striking parallels between the Russian war in Ukraine and the Soviet misadventure in Cuba: In both, the Soviets and the Russians lied and deceived to conceal their true intentions, and in both, Soviet and Russian leaders badly miscalculated.
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260
Book Description
The Cuban Missile Crisis: When Intelligence Made a Difference By: Regis D. Heitchue The Cuban Missile Crisis—the most dangerous event of the Cold War— has been chronicled in countless books and several movies that speak primarily to the political and diplomatic aspects, with only marginal reference to activities of U.S. intelligence before and during the crisis. Nothing in the historical record portrays the scope of those efforts which were critical to President Kennedy as he sought to resolve the crisis in a peaceful manner and on terms favorable to the U.S.. Recognizing the absence of the intelligence chapter in the historical record of the crisis, the author undertook to document that story in The Cuban Missile Crisis: When Intelligence Made a Difference. The author’s account is a unique story of what American intelligence knew, when it knew it, and how it knew what the Soviets were doing in Cuba prior to and during the crisis—and what we now know, 60 years later, quite accurately, what the Soviets were actually doing in Cuba. In that way this book is a valuable addition to the history of the crisis. There are intriguing aspects of the Cuban Missile Crisis that scholars still debate: Why did Khrushchev take the enormous gamble that he did? Did the mysterious backchannel between the Washington KGB chief and an ABC newsman help to resolve the standoff between Moscow and Washington? The author sheds light on these and other mysteries of the Cuban Missile Crisis. There are striking parallels between the Russian war in Ukraine and the Soviet misadventure in Cuba: In both, the Soviets and the Russians lied and deceived to conceal their true intentions, and in both, Soviet and Russian leaders badly miscalculated.
Our Last Blue Moon
Author: Kris O'Shee
Publisher: Watershed Lit Books
ISBN: 9781736814727
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 202
Book Description
In Our Last Blue Moon, dancer Kris O'Shee, widow of Alan Cheuse, the novelist, beloved teacher, and literary commentator known as the "voice of books" on NPR's All Things Considered for over thirty years, tells the story of the loss of her husband after he sustained injuries in a car crash in the summer of 2015. O'Shee chronicles the days in the Northern California hospital, the bedside vigil after Cheuse lapsed into a coma, and ultimately, his death. In her publishing debut, O'Shee writes in engaging and honest prose, in a memoir that is deeply personal and self-aware, without any self-pity or cliché. This is a story vivid in language, awash in love, and honest in reflecting on twenty-five happily shared years with the love of O'Shee's life. Reeling from Cheuse's death, O'Shee was thrust into widowhood. Rattled by grief, she eventually wrote her way to a new stage of life. "...written with grace, charm, wit, and mischief." - Molly Giles "This is a story of ultimate grace, told with ... elegant precision." - Ana Menendez "Her grief and joy will stay with me for a long time." - Matt Klam
Publisher: Watershed Lit Books
ISBN: 9781736814727
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 202
Book Description
In Our Last Blue Moon, dancer Kris O'Shee, widow of Alan Cheuse, the novelist, beloved teacher, and literary commentator known as the "voice of books" on NPR's All Things Considered for over thirty years, tells the story of the loss of her husband after he sustained injuries in a car crash in the summer of 2015. O'Shee chronicles the days in the Northern California hospital, the bedside vigil after Cheuse lapsed into a coma, and ultimately, his death. In her publishing debut, O'Shee writes in engaging and honest prose, in a memoir that is deeply personal and self-aware, without any self-pity or cliché. This is a story vivid in language, awash in love, and honest in reflecting on twenty-five happily shared years with the love of O'Shee's life. Reeling from Cheuse's death, O'Shee was thrust into widowhood. Rattled by grief, she eventually wrote her way to a new stage of life. "...written with grace, charm, wit, and mischief." - Molly Giles "This is a story of ultimate grace, told with ... elegant precision." - Ana Menendez "Her grief and joy will stay with me for a long time." - Matt Klam
Cuban Missile Crisis
Author: Jonathan Colman
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748696296
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
October 1962, The Cuban Missile Crisis: the confrontation that brought the world closer to nuclear catastrophe than ever before or since. Both John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev were determined to avoid nuclear war, but events could easily have spiraled out of control with cataclysmic results. Drawing on an extensive body of research, including primary sources released only in the last few years, this work places the crisis in a broader international and chronological context than previously possible. Discover how America was responsible for causing the conflict and Cuba's role as an important actor rather than a superpower pawn.
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748696296
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304
Book Description
October 1962, The Cuban Missile Crisis: the confrontation that brought the world closer to nuclear catastrophe than ever before or since. Both John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev were determined to avoid nuclear war, but events could easily have spiraled out of control with cataclysmic results. Drawing on an extensive body of research, including primary sources released only in the last few years, this work places the crisis in a broader international and chronological context than previously possible. Discover how America was responsible for causing the conflict and Cuba's role as an important actor rather than a superpower pawn.
RF-8 Crusader Units over Cuba and Vietnam
Author: Peter Mersky
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1782007172
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 97
Book Description
Although the Crusader was built first and foremost as a Navy interceptor, as has often been the tradition with US fighters, a photo-reconnaissance variant was also produced by Vought. The photo-bird's first operational test came in the autumn of 1962 when its overflights of Cuba alerted the world to the likely presence of medium-range ballistic missiles on the Caribbean island. The recce Crusader's next action came during the long years of the Vietnam War. This volume is the second of two in the Combat Aircraft series devoted to the Crusader, the first title (again by Peter Mersky) having covered the F-8 fighter variants, and their MiG-killing exploits, during the Vietnam War.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1782007172
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 97
Book Description
Although the Crusader was built first and foremost as a Navy interceptor, as has often been the tradition with US fighters, a photo-reconnaissance variant was also produced by Vought. The photo-bird's first operational test came in the autumn of 1962 when its overflights of Cuba alerted the world to the likely presence of medium-range ballistic missiles on the Caribbean island. The recce Crusader's next action came during the long years of the Vietnam War. This volume is the second of two in the Combat Aircraft series devoted to the Crusader, the first title (again by Peter Mersky) having covered the F-8 fighter variants, and their MiG-killing exploits, during the Vietnam War.
Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Author: Serhii Plokhy
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393540820
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 426
Book Description
"The definitive history.…With his masterly book, Mr. Plokhy has sounded a warning bell." — The Economist A harrowing account of the Cuban missile crisis and how the US and USSR came to the brink of nuclear apocalypse. Nearly thirty years after the end of the Cold War, today’s world leaders are abandoning disarmament treaties, building up their nuclear arsenals, and exchanging threats of nuclear strikes. To survive this new atomic age, we must relearn the lessons of the most dangerous moment of the Cold War: the Cuban missile crisis. Serhii Plokhy’s Nuclear Folly offers an international perspective on the crisis, tracing the tortuous decision-making that produced and then resolved it, which involved John Kennedy and his advisers, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, and their commanders on the ground. In breathtaking detail, Plokhy vividly recounts the young JFK being played by the canny Khrushchev; the hotheaded Castro willing to defy the USSR and threatening to align himself with China; the Soviet troops on the ground clearing jungle foliage in the tropical heat, and desperately trying to conceal nuclear installations on Cuba, which were nonetheless easily spotted by U-2 spy planes; and the hair-raising near misses at sea that nearly caused a Soviet nuclear-armed submarine to fire its weapons. More often than not, the Americans and Soviets misread each other, operated under false information, and came perilously close to nuclear catastrophe. Despite these errors, nuclear war was ultimately avoided for one central reason: fear, and the realization that any escalation on either the Soviets’ or the Americans’ part would lead to mutual destruction. Drawing on a range of Soviet archival sources, including previously classified KGB documents, as well as White House tapes, Plokhy masterfully illustrates the drama and anxiety of those tense days, and provides a way for us to grapple with the problems posed in our present day.
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393540820
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 426
Book Description
"The definitive history.…With his masterly book, Mr. Plokhy has sounded a warning bell." — The Economist A harrowing account of the Cuban missile crisis and how the US and USSR came to the brink of nuclear apocalypse. Nearly thirty years after the end of the Cold War, today’s world leaders are abandoning disarmament treaties, building up their nuclear arsenals, and exchanging threats of nuclear strikes. To survive this new atomic age, we must relearn the lessons of the most dangerous moment of the Cold War: the Cuban missile crisis. Serhii Plokhy’s Nuclear Folly offers an international perspective on the crisis, tracing the tortuous decision-making that produced and then resolved it, which involved John Kennedy and his advisers, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, and their commanders on the ground. In breathtaking detail, Plokhy vividly recounts the young JFK being played by the canny Khrushchev; the hotheaded Castro willing to defy the USSR and threatening to align himself with China; the Soviet troops on the ground clearing jungle foliage in the tropical heat, and desperately trying to conceal nuclear installations on Cuba, which were nonetheless easily spotted by U-2 spy planes; and the hair-raising near misses at sea that nearly caused a Soviet nuclear-armed submarine to fire its weapons. More often than not, the Americans and Soviets misread each other, operated under false information, and came perilously close to nuclear catastrophe. Despite these errors, nuclear war was ultimately avoided for one central reason: fear, and the realization that any escalation on either the Soviets’ or the Americans’ part would lead to mutual destruction. Drawing on a range of Soviet archival sources, including previously classified KGB documents, as well as White House tapes, Plokhy masterfully illustrates the drama and anxiety of those tense days, and provides a way for us to grapple with the problems posed in our present day.
True Believer
Author: Scott Carmichael
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612512534
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Book Description
Ana Montes appeared to be a model employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Known to her coworkers as the Queen of Cuba, she was an overachiever who advanced quickly through the ranks of Latin American specialists to become the intelligence community's top analyst on Cuban affairs. But throughout her sixteen-year career at DIA, Montes was sending Castro some of America's most closely guarded secrets and at the same time helping influence what the United States thought it knew about Cuba. When she was finally arrested in September 2001, she became the most senior American intelligence official ever accused of operating as a Cuban spy from within the federal U.S. government. Unrepentant as she serves out her time in a federal prison in Texas, Montes remains the only member of the intelligence community ever convicted of espionage on behalf of the Cuban government. This inside account of the investigation that led to her arrest has been written by Scott W. Carmichael, the DIA's senior counterintelligence investigator who persuaded the FBI to launch an investigation. Although Montes did not fit the FBI's profile of a spy and easily managed to defeat the agency's polygraph exams, Carmichael became suspicious of her activities and with the FBI over a period of several years developed a solid case against her. Here he tells the story of that long and ultimately successful spy hunt. Carmichael reveals the details of their efforts to bring her to justice, offering readers a front-row seat for the first major U.S. espionage case of the twentieth century. She was arrested less than twenty-four hours before learning details of the U.S. plan to invade Afghanistan post-September 11. Motivated by ideology not money, Montes was one of the last "true believers" of the communist era. Because her arrest came just ten days after 9/11, it went largely unnoticed by the American public. This book calls attention to the grave damage Montes inflicted on U.S. security—Carmichael even implicates her in the death of a Green Beret fighting Cuban-backed insurgents in El Salvador—and the damage she would have continued to inflict had she not been caught.
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
ISBN: 1612512534
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220
Book Description
Ana Montes appeared to be a model employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Known to her coworkers as the Queen of Cuba, she was an overachiever who advanced quickly through the ranks of Latin American specialists to become the intelligence community's top analyst on Cuban affairs. But throughout her sixteen-year career at DIA, Montes was sending Castro some of America's most closely guarded secrets and at the same time helping influence what the United States thought it knew about Cuba. When she was finally arrested in September 2001, she became the most senior American intelligence official ever accused of operating as a Cuban spy from within the federal U.S. government. Unrepentant as she serves out her time in a federal prison in Texas, Montes remains the only member of the intelligence community ever convicted of espionage on behalf of the Cuban government. This inside account of the investigation that led to her arrest has been written by Scott W. Carmichael, the DIA's senior counterintelligence investigator who persuaded the FBI to launch an investigation. Although Montes did not fit the FBI's profile of a spy and easily managed to defeat the agency's polygraph exams, Carmichael became suspicious of her activities and with the FBI over a period of several years developed a solid case against her. Here he tells the story of that long and ultimately successful spy hunt. Carmichael reveals the details of their efforts to bring her to justice, offering readers a front-row seat for the first major U.S. espionage case of the twentieth century. She was arrested less than twenty-four hours before learning details of the U.S. plan to invade Afghanistan post-September 11. Motivated by ideology not money, Montes was one of the last "true believers" of the communist era. Because her arrest came just ten days after 9/11, it went largely unnoticed by the American public. This book calls attention to the grave damage Montes inflicted on U.S. security—Carmichael even implicates her in the death of a Green Beret fighting Cuban-backed insurgents in El Salvador—and the damage she would have continued to inflict had she not been caught.